GRANT ROBERTSON'S 'SHARED PROSPERITY' IS A LIE

People lining up for food parcels at Eden Park, shortly before Xmas.

A new survey says that two-thirds of New Zealanders are doing it hard. But it was only two months ago that Finance Minister Grant Robertson was telling the Labour Party conference that he was ''proud that we are delivering for Kiwis a sense of shared prosperity'.

THERE WAS A huge demand for food parcels over the Xmas-New Year period, with the Auckland City Mission saying that demand was up nearly a third from the previous period last year. In an attempt to cope with demand the Mission shifted its distribution centre to Eden Park and expanded its operation to include two maraes. In something of an ironic twist Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, leading a Government still pursuing austerity policies, made an appearance at the Eden Park distribution centre offering her 'solidarity''. But people can't live on 'solidarity' and on good intentions.

Despite Finance Minister Grant Robertson telling the Labour Party conference in November that he was 'proud that we are delivering for Kiwis a sense of shared prosperity' the only people actually enjoying any 'shared prosperity' have been the rich. During the first year of the Labour-led government the rich elite increased their combined wealth by a staggering 20 percent.

After business interests expressed their displeasure Jacinda Ardern backed away from her stated intention of putting up taxes on the wealthy. I bet she didn't remind the folk down at Eden Park of that fact.

But this Government's continued commitment to neoliberalism and market-driven policies means that the majority of New Zealanders are doing it hard, and its getting worse. The New Zealand Herald reports that a new survey by the Combined Trades Union (CTU) has revealed that some two-thirds of New Zealanders say that their incomes are not keeping up with the cost of living despite being forced to take on more paid work just to keep their heads above water. It is the kind of grinding poverty that sucks the life out of people.

Where are our Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's?

This Government's 'commitment' to fighting poverty amounts to 'promising' to halve child poverty within a decade. Even if this was in any way possible under market capitalism, people still have to live their lives now. The Minister for Women, Julie Anne Genter, tells me we have to be 'patient' for things to turn around. I think that's obscene coming from someone on a large six figure salary.

A serious commitment to end poverty and its costly social effects requires us to face that capitalism has always reproduced widespread poverty while producing massive profits for a relative few. But not one New Zealand parliamentary politician accepts this. Instead they blow smoke about 'transformational change' while the Government's commitment to austerity, via the Budget Responsibility Rules' actually means nothing will change and the economic status quo will remain undisturbed.

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn recognises that we must confront capitalism as do politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the United States.  But we lack politicians of this calibre. There is no recognition that poverty and inequality don't just happen by accident but are the product of a system that enriches the few and impoverishes the many. It can't be fixed by simply tinkering around the edges which is how the Labour-led government operates. We need truly radical solutions.